The Experimental Studies Of Language And Memory Skills Of Chinese Children With Down Syndrome

Caused by the abnormality of chromosome 21,Down syndrome is the most common chromosomal disease as well as one of the most frequent known genetic causes of mental retardation.According to the different types of the chromosomal abnormality,it can be divided into three catalogs Trisomy21,which is the most prevalent one;Translocation and Mosaicism.These kinds of genetic disorders lead to the abnormality in developmental process of brain,resulting in many physical and behavioral characteristics different from the normal.Among them are delayed language development and memory impairment. Due to the large number of this group, the important function of language in enhancing one's studies and ability of independent living ,combined with the few relavant researches in our country, it is of great significance to carry out such studies and design scientific intervention strategies for this group according to the findings.The paper try to answer the following five questions: I. Does it exist the so-called "cognition-language dissociation" in Chinese children with Down Syndrome(DS); II. Does the development of acceptive and productive language match that of the cognition; III. Are there any differences in acquisition of different types of words in Chinese children with DS; IV. Does it exist the auditory short-term memory deficit and whether the visual short-term memory is a strength in Chinese children with DS; IV. Does it exit the gender-related difference in the language of Chinese children with DS.The paper reviews both domestic and foreign researches regarding language and cognition in children with DS,with the domestic form the perspective of language and memory and foreign researches from the angles of research methodology,the research findings and the theoretical schools.In the main body of the paper ,4 linguistic and cognitive tests are conducted on 35 Chinese children with DS and the same number of typically developing children which serves as the comparison group.The 4 tests are as follows: 3 subtests of MSCA—CR : a.perception-operation test; b.auditory short-term memory test; c. visual short-term memory test and lastly,a language test d.language impairment evaluation test.Based upon matching the nonverbal-MA,the paper compare the performance of two groups in the tests of b, c, d.Addtionally, the paper also explore the possible divergence of language abilities between female DS children and male DS children .After statistical analysis,we obtain the following five conclusions: I. the language development lags behind the deveolpment of cognition in children with DS; II. The acceptive and productive language also lag behind the development of cognition; III. The auditory short-term memory deficit does exist in children with DS while the visual short-term memory is relatively a strength; IV. the acquisition of words related to direction,color,and order as well as the ability of reasoning are weaknesses in the language of this group; V. the gener-related difference exists in the language of children with DS ,with female's competence better than that of male.On the basis of these research findings ,the paper put forwards four guidelines for intervention of language and memory which are as follows: I. the training of cognitive skills should also be paid attention while intervening with the language deficit ;II. More attention should be attched to the acquisition of those words related direction, colour, order and the ability of reasoning.III. "overt cumulative rehearsal strategy " should be introduced to improve the auditory short-term...